100 Years of Service

Four Generations of California Casualty Leadership

Carl G. Brown, Sr.

Founder of California Casualty1914

California Casualty founder Carl Brown was a natural salesman, affable and at ease meeting with people in all walks of life. A career insurance man with a zest for success, it was probably no surprise to his colleagues when, in late 1913, as the state of California was about to change workers’ compensation law, he determined to start his own company.

Carl G. Brown, Jr.

Chairman of the Board1957–1978

Carl Brown, Jr. joined the company in 1932, starting out in the safety engineering department at the same weekly wage as every new hire – $12.50 a week. Introspective and analytical, he wasn’t a chip off the old block, though he shared his father’s sense of honor, and he knew how to build relationships.

Thomas R. Brown

Chairman of the Board
1978–2012

If there was an assumption that Tom Brown would join the family business, he never felt pressured. Like his father and grandfather, he attended and graduated from Stanford. Afterwards, he served in the U.S. Navy for two years, and then worked for a year at California Casualty while considering his next move.

Carl ‘Beau’ Brown

Chief Executive Officer2007–Present

Despite some summer jobs with California Casualty, it was not inevitable that Beau Brown would make a career in the family business. But after graduating Dartmouth, he was considering a graduate degree program when his father casually suggested in 1986 that Beau “try out” the company for a couple of years.